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DEVELOPMENT in ZIMBABWE the Role of the University

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by IDS OpenDocs DEVELOPMENT IN ZIMBABW E The Role of the University l A Lecture Series at the University of Oslo r June 1 st — June 8 th, 1983 TABLE OF C 0 NT E NTS Table of Contents ..................................... p. i Foreword, by W.B. E i d e ...............................p. ii G.L. CHAVUNDUKA: The University of Zimbabwe - a P r o f i l e ..................................... o. 1 K.M. MAKAMURE: Law and Development ................. p. 12 S.M. NKIWANE: Social Science and Development . p. 26 O. MUCHENA: Education and Development ........... p. 29 S.D. HARVEY: The Arts and Development .............p. 37 M.J. SWIFT: Science and Development ............... p. 45 R.A.B. CHOTO: Medicine and Development ........... p. 61 M.I. GOMEZ: Food, Nutrition and Development • . p. 73 D.H. HALE: Agriculture and Development ........... p. 88 W. KEKULAWELA: Universities and Development in Sri L a n k a ..................................... p. 100 List of Illustrations ................................. p. 125 FOREWO R D This is a compilation of a series of lectures given at the University of Oslo in June 1983 by staff members of the University of Zimbabwe. They participated in a delegation to the University of Oslo to exnlore the opportunities for building academic contacts between individuals and departments at the two Universities. Their visit constituted one impor­ tant step in a long process of developing the content and format of a collaborative program between the University of Oslo and the University of Zimbabwe, the first "case" in the general efforts of the University of Oslo to establish new forms of academic cooperation with the third world. It was felt natural at the time of this first extended visit from Zimbabwe that the' 9 members of the delegation should provide information about the current activities and plans of their respective departments/facuities. The lectures were given over five consecutive days and were open to anyone interested. All contributors agreed to the proposal of having the lectures distributed afterwards, first and fore­ most at the University of Oslo as a contribution to the mutual exchange of information among staff and students. Due to logistic and administrative reasons it took much longer that intended to get the various papers ready for presentation. In the period that has passed, many develop­ ments have taken place at the rapidly expanding University of Zimbabwe. The papers should therefore not be taken as reflecting the situation today in all aspects. Nevertheless, the broad lines of the basic philosophy of and challenges to the University of Zimbabwe are well reflected in the papers even if certain 'specific informations may be somewhat outdated. - u - Science and Development Prof. M.J.Swift, Faculty of Science Introduction In this paper I shall attempt to explain the role that I believe a University Faculty of Science has to play in the development of a sub-^tropical country such as Zimbabwe. My brief covers the whole of science but perhaps I may be forgiven if I display a certain bias towards the biological sciences, because that is the ground on which I feel most comfortable. I shall illustrate my thesis by reference to the mode of operation of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zimbabwe. It should be noted that the responsibilities of the Faculty of Science exclude other science-based subjects which are housed within the Faculties of Medicine, Agriculture,Engineering and Veterinary Sience. This separation is in many aspects an unfortunate feature of university structure and much might have been gained by a closer integration. The role of the Faculty of Science may to some degree appear to be limited by being distinguished from these three faculties; their purpose has a clearly-established vocational role to train oractititio- ners of medicine, agriculture engineering and veterinary medicine. Within this context what is the role of the Faculty of Science? Broadly speaking it is two-fold; firstly the Faculty is concerned to produce the science-trained school teachers on which the educational future of the country depends; secondly to produce researchers, both at the professional and the technical levels who can tackle the fundamental scientific problems exposed by the activities, among others, of the practitioners of the other science-based professions. It would not therefore be correct to conclude that the Faculty of Science is concerned with "Pure" Science whilst the other faculties are concerned with "Applied" Science. This indeed is a distinction which, although perhaps thought to have meaning within the educational institutions of the industrial world, has little value in Zimbabwe, a point I shall return to later. In common with similar faculties elsewhere the main duties of the academic staff members are firstly to educate scientists through the undergraduate (BSc) and postgraduate (MSc and DPh) degree programme? and secondly to themselves conduct research. There is however a third role which is perhaps more signifi­ cant in a country like Zimbabwe that it is in the high techno­ logy societies of the North - that of consultant to government and industry. These activities give a first definition of the role of the University scientist in the development of the country. The Science Degrees at the University of Zimbabwe The composition of the Faculty of Science is much the same as that in any other University (Table 1). In addition to the teaching departments there are two research departments. The Institute of Mining Research is an institution set up with funds from the mining industry in Zimbabwe, and which is concerned specifically with research related to the development of this important component of the Zimbabwean economy. The Lake Kariba Research Station was established not long after the filling of that enormous man-made impoundment TABLE 1 The Departments of the Faculty of Science, University of Zimbabwe. All the teaching Departments contribute to the BSc (General) and BSc (Honours) degrees. In addition same of the Departments contribute service courses to other Faculties; these contributions are also indicated in the Table. DEPARTMENT TEACHING SPECTRUM Biochemistry BSc, MB (Medicine) Biological Sciences BSc Chemistry BSc, BSc (Agric) Computing Science j, BSc, BSc (Eng), BSc (Psych), BSc (Econ) Geology BSc Mathematics BSc, BSc (Eng), BSc (Eoan), BA Physics BSc, BSc (Eng) Institute of Mining Research Research only Lake Kariba Research Station Research only 47 and has a brief for multidisciplinary study of the region around Kariba in all its respects, including the physical and the biological resources of the lake and the medical, sociological and agricultural facies of the region. Nonetheless biological research has been its major focus of interest as I shall have occasion to refer to later. Let me now return to the major function of the Faculty of Science; its teaching role. The entry requirement for science is to normally have passed three science subjects at Advanced Level at a sufficient standard. A most important feature of our current stage of development, as Professor Chavunduka has described elsewhere, is the rate at which student numbers are increasing. This expansion has not been as rapid in any of the science-based faculties as in Arts, Social Studies or Commerce and Law. The reason for this is partly due to an inevitable lag in the schools, because of a lack first of all of science- trained teachers at the secondary school level, and secondly because deficiencies in equipping schools for the teaching of science. Students coming into science are therefore often less well prepared in the practical skills of science than they should be although in the theoretical aspects of science they are generally well trained. This has implications for our curriculum,and our first year (Part I, Table 2) is structured to take account of this. Students take three more subjects in the first year and after this may enter two streams; the General stream in which they study two subjects or the Honours stream (which may be completed in three or four years according to subject) in which they eventually will spesialise in a single subject. I have illustrated this for combinations of Geology, Chemistry, Biological Sciences and Mathematics but comparable combinations of other subjects are of course possible. These two types of degree, General and Honours, are designed to produce two types of graduate. The General Degree is aimed at the Secondary school teacher. School teaching is regarded by us as an absolute prime target for our graduates at the present, for the reasons that I have already given, - the very 48 2 Undergraduate degree programmes in Science. Examples are given of programmes leading to either BSc (General) or BSc (Honours) degrees. Note that students may leave with a degree after three years or four years of study. Scheme 1 Scheme 2 Scheme 3 K PART I Chemistry Biological Sciences* Chemistry Geology Biological Chemistry Physics Mathema­ Sciences tics PART II Biological Sciences Chemistry Geology Mathematics PART III Biological Sciences (General) Chemistry Geology (General) Mathematics (Honours) PART IV Biological Sciences (Honours) Geology (Honours) In this scheme Biological Sciences is taken as a double-subject. high demand for science-trained teachers. We believe that it is in our interest as well as in the country's to concen­ trate on this at least in the short term. One interesting feature of discussion is the best way to produce such school teachers. The scientists tend to feel that the best way to produce a good secondary school teacher is to put him or her right through the BSc programme up to the General level and then to add an educational component afterwards. Many educationists prefer a system in which education is taught in parallel with the science during the first degree.
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